Access Denied A ReBoot Romance
by Joshua Falken
Summary: Dot and Bob are having their first date - but with the interference of their friends and the User, can they reach the end of it? (Completed)


Access Denied  
A ReBoot Romance  
by Joshua Falken

Based in an argument by BenRG

Thanks to BenRG for beta-read this fic :-)

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Author's warning: The events of this fanfic happen after the War against Daemon, following an alternate timeline, where some events of the Fourth Season had not happened or happened in a different way. The characterisations are based on those in the Third Season.

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The silicon-haired sprite breathed deeply before entering the in Core Control Room of System Mainframe.

'Come on!' Bob thought. 'All that you will do is to invite Dot for a date. The worst than can happen is she says 'no' due to her work obligations! And you are as nervous as a teenager!' 

The problem was that he was as nervous as a teenager. This would be their first "official" date; the first time really just for them only, something a little difficult to arrange during the War against Daemon, since all the time that they were alone, some kind of emergency happened that broke the atmosphere.

Bob entered and saw that Dot was alone in the Control Room. She sat at her desk, her back to him, surrounded by vidwindows, concentrating on her work. She was singing in a low voice for herself. "...Retrieve me, come on and take my silicon heart. Take your love and re-code every part..."

He approached quietly and hugged her from behind. "As you wanted!"

"Huh?" she asked surprised.

"How are you processing, Dot?" 

She smiled, taking off her glasses. "I'm fine. And you?"

'It depends of how you answer my question,' he thought. "I'm on-line. Too much work?"

"I was just verifying some of the energy transmission subroutines. For some reason, the transmission of energy of the Core to Sector Riemann is oscillating." She explained, giving the new name of the Sector G-Prime. Considering its past as Megabyte's headquarters, the change of name made sense...

"I understand."

She turned off the vidwindow and sighed, tired. Bob began to massage her shoulders. "You are tired, aren't you?"

There was no sense in lying. "Yes, I am. I need a rest." She looked at for him. "Don't tell Matrix and Mouse that I said this, okay?"

He laughed. "All right." The perfect chance: it was now or never. "Dot, would you like to go out with me this downtime?"

Her core.sys failed a pulse. "Go out with you? As in a date?"

"Yes." His core.sys failed a pulse when Dot paused before replying.

"I would love it." She answered with a gentle smile.

Bob got to hide his relief. "Then, do I get you in your apartment at 7UT?"

"Only a nano." She consulted her PDA. "Could you make it 7:30?"

"Sure, no problem! I'll see you at 7:30, then."

They said good-bye, and Bob kissed her cheek kindly. After Bob left the room and to close the door, she heard a yell of happiness.

Dot Matrix just shook her head and laughed in her quiet way.

== ==

With the invitation dealt with, they had to worry about the preparations.

== ==

"Matrix, could you take care of the Game Cubes this downtime?" Bob asked as soon as he left the Principal Office.

The other guardian, who was talking to Bob through a vidwindow, looked surprised when he answered. "I can, but why?"

Bob decided to be evasive. If he told Matrix that he was going out with Dot, there were three possibilities: Matrix would burst into laughter, he would give him a mocking sermon to be sure that he took care of his sister, or he would hunt him down and shoot him like a Virus. Since he didn't want to deal with any of those situations, for more improbable that some of them could be, Bob replied: "I have a commitment that I can't miss."

"But it is some kind of problem?" Why Bob did seem so anxious?

"Problem... no. It is just a personal matter."

Bob closed the connection before Matrix had the chance to ask for more information. In his quarters, the renegade Guardian sat back in his chair, a questioning look on his face.

== ==

Dot asked Mouse and AndrAIa to come to her office. While she waited for them, the Command.Com could not stop thinking about the hacker deciding to stay in Mainframe. After all, being a mercenary, she expected that after the War against Daemon, Mouse would go the User knows where... But instead of that, she stayed in the city. Dot wondered if part of the reason was that the hacker simply wanted to stay in Mainframe, the place that perhaps (Dot would never ask) Mouse considered... her home...

Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. "Dot, can we come in?" It was AndrAIa's voice.

"Sure!"

"Is there a problem?" Mouse asked. That oscillation of energy had been a headache for some cycles.

"No, Mouse. I only wanted to know if you could watch the running of the systems of the city this downtime."

As Mouse was, after Dot herself, the sprite that best knew System Mainframe's internal processes, it was a natural request. Even so, Mouse asked the inevitable question. "Why?" Dot leaving work half-done? That was the biggest surprise of the cycle!

"I... I have an important commitment this downtime." AndrAIa noticed a little hesitation in her friend's voice. The Command.Com turned to the game sprite. "AndrAIa, could you take care of Enzo this downtime? If it isn't a problem, I mean."

"Don't worry. No problem." 'Other than Matrix and Enzo will be looking strangely at each other the whole time,' she thought. They accepted the existence one of the other, but that didn't mean that they didn't find strange to have another version of himself at his side...

"Thank you very much." Dot said.

When they left Dot's office, Mouse and AndrAIa looked at each other. Something was happening under their noses and they didn't know what...

== ==

Some microseconds later, young Enzo Matrix was with Frisket, coming back from the school, when he saw Bob leaving a MP3 files store in a hurry. He carried a gift package in his right hand.

Curious, Enzo and Frisket followed their friend. Bob crossed the Baudway Sector and went to the Algorithm Theatre, where he bought two tickets for the 9 o'clock showing of one of the films playing.

Enzo thought that it was strange. Bob would not be running if there weren't an emergency. What could be happening? First, Dot called him as soon as he left the school to tell him that he would be staying with AndrAIa and Matrix this downtime. Now, his friend was racing from one side of Mainframe to the other...

An idea began to form in the head of the young sprite. He immediately activated a vidwindow and called AndrAIa in the Principal Office. Enzo had to speak with her, Mouse and Matrix.

== ==

Later, Bob was checking the engine of his car for the tenth time. The last thing that he wanted was his car deciding to die in the middle of his date. He was checking the energy injector when black oil was sprayed into his eyes.

Without could see, he knocked down the rod that held up the hood, which fell and almost crushed his hands. Alarmed, Bob stepped back and tripped over a tool that was in the ground. He fell on his backside. "Perfect," he said sarcastically. "At least, the engine is working." he added, when he heard the contented purring sound of the engine.

== ==

Meanwhile, a Council of War was in session in Dot's Diner. The participants were AndrAIa, Mouse, Matrix, Enzo and Ray Tracer. When the game sprite and the hacker revealed Dot's request, and Matrix told them what Bob had asked of him, they could only reach a conclusion: Dot and Bob were to have a real date!

"Well, it was already about time!" Mouse exclaimed. "Their on-off relationship had given us enough agony over the hours!" 

AndrAIa saw that Matrix was concerned. "What's going on, Matrix?"

"Will it go alright?"

"What?"

"Their date."

"Excuse me, sugah, but I think is obvious that those two love each other. Only they didn't notice that, of course."

"I know that they love each other!" Matrix exclaimed. "But I knew that since they first met each other!"

"Me too!" Enzo exclaimed.

"Well... er... we two met those two." Matrix even could accept that there was a backup of his young version walking around, but he couldn't help find that strange... "Any way, I know how they are. Do you remember the first time that they had a tiff?" Enzo understood what his older version meant, and his face showed concern.

"What do you mean?" Ray asked, confused.

"I didn't tell you that story?"

AndrAIa said that he hadn't, and Matrix began to tell on the first fight between Bob and Dot, and how that 'minor' tiff had threatened to literally destroy Mainframe.

AndrAIa, Mouse and Ray absorbed that data in silence.

"You understand my concerns now?"

They understood.

"What we can do?" AndrAIa asked.

== ==

Later, Dot was in her apartment. She has just left the bath, and now she was looking at the mirror.

She had to admit that her indecision was funny. She had taken life-or-deletion decisions in femtoseconds during the War against Megabyte (she looked at her gloved left hand, when she remembered that time) and against Daemon. Now she was unable to decide on what to wear for a simple downtime's relaxation with Bob!

Dot looked at the clock, and saw that she had to hurry. It was 7:10UT.

She carried several outfits in her icon. She tried the first combination.

She double-clicked her icon. She was now dressed a dark coloured suit, very elegant, with a knee-length skirt. She wrinkled her forehead. "But sugar, you are going on a date, not to a business meeting." she said to her reflection in the mirror, imitating Mouse's voice.

Another double click on her icon and she was wearing the red dress that she had worn to Enzo's 1-0 birthday... it seemed that it had been in another life, after everything that they been through in the last hour. She smiled as she remembered the expressions on Bob and Enzo's faces when they saw her in that dress. Her little brother didn't seem to believe that his workaholic sister could dress any other clothes than a business suit and Bob well, his face had gone an interesting shade of red whenever she got close of him that cycle...

For a moment, she imagined how he would react at seeing her in that dress again... Dot laughed, shook her head, and clicked her icon again.

Now she was dressed in a black blouse with a circuit pattern drawn on it over a black T-shirt, a long black coat, a black knee-length skirt, black pumps and black stockings. She liked the result. Elegant and discreet while still appropriately little informal. 

Just in case, Dot looked at today's edition of Mainframe Data-Times. The weather forecast indicated the possibility of rain by the end of the night. She used her apartment's computer to load a raincoat into her icon. She gave a Cadet Guardian salute to her reflection. 'Be prepared,' she thought with a smile. 

== ==

At 7:28, a red convertible car stopped in front of the M. Minsky Building in Baudway Sector. A well-dressed blue-skinned and silicon-haired sprite left the vehicle and walked into the building's atrium. "Er... could you tell Ms. Matrix that I am waiting for her?" Bob asked.

The guard was surprised. That was the first time that the guardian came to visit the Command.Com in her apartment, at least when he was so well prepared and so formal. The binome activated the communications link to Dot's apartment.

"Miss Matrix? Guardian Bob is here waiting for you." He explained. The guard listened for a moment. "She is coming down," he told the Guardian.

"Thank you." Bob thanked.

Some nanos later, the door of the elevator opened up. Dot came out, putting on an earring as she did so. Bob's throat went dry and something deleted his speech subroutines when he saw how.. wonderful she was looking. If somebody had said at that moment that she was a dream vision, he would have believed them.

"Let's go," Dot said. She hid how much she had been surprised with his appearance. She never had seen him look so smart... or so handsome.

"Sure." he opened the door of the building for her.

They got in the car. Neither Bob nor dot saw the female sprite with the fiery red hair that was following them at a discreet distance.

== ==

The couple was on Motorola Track, waiting for the traffic began to flow. Bob thought the nano was as adapted as any other. "Dot..."

"Yes?"

"This is for you," he said, giving her gift-wrapped package.

"Oh...! Thank you very much!" She opened the gift. "But... this is Hard Drive's latest album!" She exclaimed. It was her favourite rock band. "But... how did you know?"

"Intuition," He winked at her. It was intuition, and wearing thin the patience of the owner of the MP3 records store asking about her musical tastes.

"Anyway... thank you very much."

"You're welcome."

"Well, can I know what you planned for us? Or is it a surprise?"

"Nothing very sophisticated, I'm afraid," Bob admitted. "A dinner, a movie... the usual."

"That sounds wonderful," Dot assured him. It was about time they had some normality. "Where will we be having dinner, if I can know?"

"In the Moebius." It was a small bar-restaurant in the limits between Baudway and Kits. It was discreet and inviting. "After all, if we went to your diner, Dot, our friends would be commenting on our date the whole time!"

"That's true." She agreed. "You planned well."

"You are not the only one in Mainframe capable of planning." He commented in an ironic tone. Bob saw Dot bite her bottom lip. "What's wrong?"

"I was thinking ... What about Mike the TV? The moment that he knows that we are on a date, he won't stay away from us! He is capable to transmitting the report over the entire Net!"

"Don't worry," Bob assured her with an impish smile. "It will be a little difficult him to disturb us while he is playing the Net guide for Hex."

"Oh, My User! You didn't do that!" She exclaimed.

"Hex doesn't mind."

They laughed, imagining the talkative TV set accompanying the chaotic virus all though the Net.

At that moment the interface of Mainframe changed from a starry black to a purple darkness. A sound of an electric spark echoed through the city. "Warning, incoming Game! Warning, incoming Game!"

By pure reflex action, Bob used his Glitch-powers to analyse the Game Cube "This is bad! This is very bad!" Bob exclaimed after a moment. Why did this sort of thing always happen when everything was going so well?

"What's going on?"

"The Game... It is going land right here!"

Dot closed her eyes. Yes, that was really very bad!

The Game Cube landed on top of the two sprites with a final sounding 'thud'.

When Dot opened her eyes, she saw that they were in the middle of a field. The sky was of storm. The wind beat in their faces. With a resigned sigh, them rebooted. They were dressing civilian clothes, with a NSSL identification card pinned to their lapels.

"The Game is called 'Storm Chasers'." Bob explained, after a moment. "To win the game, we have to get as much data as possible from a series of tornadoes. We're directly competing with the User, who is also trying to gather data from the same storms."

"Where is the User?" Dot asked, completely professional now.

On that moment, a series of dark vans passed by them at break-neck speed. They would have run over Dot, if the Guardian had not snatched her from their path. They saw an evil-looking face leering out of the front window of the lead vehicle before the convoy disappeared down the highway.

"Does that answer your question?"

"Let's go!"

They jumped into the pick-up truck that the game had provided for them as a transport, and accelerated down the highway. They didn't have to go very far. Only a few kilometres in front of them a great tornado was moving up the highway towards them. "Do we have to obtain data from that?" Dot asked, her voice rising to a terrified squeak. Can you blame her?

Bob nodded, mutely.

== ==

Matrix walked up to the west wall of the Game Cube, where Mouse was waiting.

"Did you lose the game, dear?" Mouse asked. She was cleaning her katana sword, still sitting on her motorbike.

"Yeah, I didn't get it. I was stuck in the Kits Sector, repairing some tears. Are they inside of the game?"

"Yes."

"At least we didn't need to worry about winning the Game, with Bob and Dot inside there." Matrix commented.

The hacker was silent for some nanos. "Great beginning for a date." she commented.

The renegade gave Mouse a cold glare.

== ==

Two tornadoes and five near-core.sys failures later, Bob and Dot were racing towards the last tornado of the game. Beside them, the User's convoy raced along.

Suddenly, Bob stepped on the brake. "What are you doing?" Dot asked, shocked. The last tornado was well in front of them! The User would beat them to it if they stopped!

"Look, Dot! The funnel! It is inclined! It will move in the other direction and we won't catch it if we continue on this highway!" She then saw that the tornado was about to move off in another direction. "There was a road off to the left a few kilometres back, wasn't there?"

"Yes, there was. Go!"

Bob did a U-turn in the van and raced towards the other road. The tornado began to veer off to the left. The User would not catch it now.

Meanwhile, the two sprites went directly in the direction of the phenomenon. A truck fell in front of them and it exploded into a spray of scrap metal. "Right!" Dot screamed. Bob somehow managed to get around the obstruction without colliding with it.

"Left!" Now it was a tree.

"Right!" Now it was a farm machine.

"What side now?" Bob asked.

"I don't have any idea," Dot replied after recovering her breath.

In that moment, a house dropped out of the sky and landed the road in front of them.

"I don't believe it!"

"Hold on, were going to make a house call!"

Both screamed as their van slammed through one wall of the building, shot across a room occupied by three very surprised-looking game sprites and out the other wall. Neither of them could believe that they were still whole after that.

Now, the tornado was just in front of them. They stopped the truck and they placed the data collector on the ground. Upon contact with the ground, the machine automatically punched claws into the ground to hold itself steady when the tornado struck.

"Let's get out of here!" Bob yelled. He didn't need to tell Dot twice.

The two sprites ran to the van and they left at full speed. The data collector began to ring an alarm as soon as Dot turned on her computer.

"Collector ready!" She screamed to can be heard with the noise of the wind.

The tornado approached closer and closer.

The data collector began to work.

At the moment in that the tornado threatened suck them inside, Dot began to receive the readings and the game finished.

== ==

"Game Over! Game Over!"

The Game rose into the sky, leaving behind some disoriented-looking binomes and two sprites. Bob looked at his clock: 8,17. There was no chance of taking Dot to have dinner now. Great beginning for a date, he thought, sarcastic.

They went back to the car (now dented on the left side). What Bob feared happened: the car didn't start.

"I will check the engine. Press the accelerator when I say." he asked Dot.

"Wouldn't it be better to call a tow-car?"

"It can't be serious." He really hoped that was the case, anyway. That hope was quickly deleted.

Some nanos later, the engine still refused to start. He was about to try one more time when a truck passed, splashing through a puddle of rainwater. Bob was completely soaked. With difficulty, Dot hid her laughter.

"I'll call a tow-car," he said with a completely straight face.

== ==

Bob and Dot were in the garage, waiting the verdict. She was seated, leaning on a workbench. He was still drying his hair with a towel, and looking concerned. He hoped it wasn't serious, after all he still had to take Dot to the movies!

"I'm sorry, Guardian, but the turbo-lock failed when that Game tossed the car around," the mechanic told Bob after completing his examination. "It will be necessary to replace the part."

"How long?" Bob asked, waiting for the worst.

"About two milliseconds." It was enough.

Dot saw how Bob disappointed was. She understood the reason. For something like this to happen on a first date...

"Bob, why we don't go to the movies while they fix your car?" she suggested. "The theatre is just a few blocks from here. Besides, the downtime isn't bad for a walk."

Bob laughed and shook his head. "Okay."

== ==

They walked quickly to the Algorithm Theatre and silently thanked the cold wind that gave them a perfect excuse to walk very close to each other. Discreetly, Mouse, Enzo, Frisket and Ray (who had been hiding near the garage) followed behind them.

"It seems that they are both taking this date seriously!" Mouse thought, a little surprised. She was irritated with herself with the small annoyance that she felt at the idea. It was almost as if she was jealous of them, that is if the idea wasn't completely ridiculous. After all had she not been the one who had convinced Dot to finally admit that she loved Bob, when he and Matrix returned from the Web?

"What's wrong, love?" Ray asked, noticing her strange expression.

"Nothing!"

Meanwhile, the two lovers had arrived at the Algorithm Theatre. They noticed the line that had for one of the films immediately, "The Master of the Disks - The Fellowship of the One Disk," 'Fortunately I bought tickets for another film... with so many people, there wouldn't be any atmosphere!' Bob thought. He was about to share his foresight with Dot when he noticed her thoughtful expression.

"What's up?" he asked curious.

"Uh? Oh, nothing! I will get some popcorn, while you go check the tickets, ok?"

"Sure."

Some nanos later, Dot found Bob discussing with the movie theatre manager. She was concerned at the sight since Bob seemed to be running out of patience with the small binome. "What you mean that the show is full?"

"I'm sorry, Guardian Bob, but it is that there was a problem with our record system. The session of 'Data Signals' for which you pre-booked the tickets is full."

Dot understood the situation and she shared Bob's anger. "How do you intend to solve this?" She asked.

The manager thought fast. He recognised the signs: he knew that many loving couples didn't like to have their night interrupted by 'record system errors', and they sometimes used the violent action to demonstrate that. Not that the Guardian and System's Command.Com were likely to go that far, but he wasn't about to take the risk with two such feared and respected Game Warriors...

"Well, I can give you entrances for another film in the same showing of the session that you had programmed."

"Which film?"

"What about the film that is playing for the first time today? The "Master of the Disks?" 

"Very well." Dot affirmed. Bob noticed that she had liked the suggestion.

"Is there some thing that I miss in this conversation?" Bob asked, still sounding a bit annoyed.

"Well... that is..." Dot was a little embarrassed. "I love "The Master of the Disks"."

He laughed. She was very pretty when she was embarrassed.

== ==

When the two entered in the screening room, three sprites breathed in relief. 'I only hope that that they don't mess everything up.' Enzo thought, still a little concerned.

== ==

Bob was counting. Twelve trailers before the film began. It was not surprised that the occupants of the room were getting impatient. "Get on with it!" screamed a binome, wearing a warrior's costume.

Several voices agreed.

"Do you think that we will be able to hear the movie?" Bob asked the sprite at his side.

Dot smiled in response. "Wait until the film starts, then everything will go quiet," she replied. She understood the binomes' impatience, being a great fan of "The Master of the Disks" herself. She was proven correct. As soon as the film's titles began to play on the screen, everything went quiet.

Dot leaned her head on Bob's shoulder and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. He could smell her sweet perfume.

== ==

Ray looked at his clock. They were more or less in the halfway point of the movie.

"Everything is going well." he commented.

"I hope so," Mouse answered, while she cleaned her sword. She always did that when she was nervous or tense. They, Enzo and Frisket were in the reception area of the movie theatre.

The dog stood up its ears when it saw a null passing, and he began to follow the strange little electronic creature. "Frisket?" Enzo called out when he realised that his dog was gone.

== ==

The heroes of the film ran along the narrow bridge, escaping from the virus that pursued them.

"What do you think?" Dot asked.

"Very good," Bob admitted. "Can you lend me that book?"

"Sure. Has the story impressed you yet, oh brave Guardian?" she asked, smiling in a teasing way.

"Yes. But there is someone very close to me that impresses me much more." He said seriously.

She turned to him. Her bright violet eyes looked directly into his brown eyes. Nobody paid much attention in them. The attention of everybody else in the room was on the movie. With their feelings plainly declared at last, Bob and Dot's lips got closer and closer

On the screen, the witch of the group shouted to the virus, with a powerful voice: "ACCESS DENIED!"

At that exact moment, the screen went black and everybody in the theatre screamed in anger.

'What happened?' Dot thought, surprised.

Dot and Bob's minds were reeling in surprise. 'Access Denied!' they both thought.

== ==

"What happened?" Dot asked, in a highly controlled tone of voice. Before her, Mouse, Ray, Enzo and Frisket, looked sheepishly at the ground, wishing with all their souls that they could find somewhere, anywhere, to hide from Dot's building anger.

"Your brother's dog chewed through the building's energy cable," the manager explained, having just returned from checking the damage.

"What are you doing here?" Dot asked, looking directly at her friends and kin.

"Well... uh..." None of them knew what to say to Dot or Bob.

The Command.Com looked directly at her little brother. "And you should not be in the bed, sleeping?"

Enzo kept his mouth shut, with a little hope that it would not make the matter worst than it already is.

The guardian grabbed Mouse by the arm and dragged her out of the foursome. "Mouse, what are you doing here?" He asked the hacker in an urgent whisper.

"Uh well" Mouse stammered. "Uh, we was just out for a walk, sugah." she said, trying and failing to sound innocent.

"A walk?" Bob repeated, without caring to hide the irony in his voice.

Mouse didn't dare say anything else. If she said why they were really there, Bob and Dot would delete them at once!

"We will talk with you later." Dot said in a forbidding tone, before she and Bob left.

== ==

After they got the car back, Dot and Bob drove down the Mirabilis Drive. They discussed what had happened in the theatre. "I can't believe that they were following us!" Bob shook his head. "I mean... It is as if they thought that we couldn't be trusted have a normal date like anybody else..."

"Er Bob... You know that they are right in thinking that, don't you?"

"How come?" Bob looked at his girlfriend in disbelief.

Dot calmly returned his glance. "'Normal' is not the word that I would use to define our date. We got caught in a difficult game, which nearly destroyed your car. The movie theatre had over-sold our show, so we had to see a different movie, and my brother's dog gave us our own personal little lights out. I would call it romantic and exciting, perhaps. But normal?"

That was the last straw. Both tried to hold in the laughter, but it was hopeless.

"And they even chose the right moment!" Dot laughed. "'Access Denied!' she shouted, and the access was denied!"

"Yeah!" Bob agreed.

They fell silent for a moment before Bob spoke up. "I don't believe it!" he snarled.

"What's wrong?" Dot asked. Bob, quietly, pointed to the rear-view mirror. The mirror showed that a sprite with metallic green hair following them in a motorcycle.

Dot sighed. "They don't give up." She commented.

"I have an idea." Bob said and suddenly turned down the first street to the right. A few nanos later, they stopped in front of a disco. Bob pulled Dot inside.

"Bob, what...?" she tried to ask, shouting above the volume of the music.

"Trust me."

They left the building through its' fire exit and went up the alley back to the street. They emerged just in time to see a very confused AndrAIa enter the disco. The couple went back to the Bob's car and they drove off.

"Good thinking!" Dot congratulated her date.

"Thank you," Bob said with a grin.

Finally, as they drove back towards Dot's apartment building, they passed Floating Point Park. Dot was struck by a strange idea. The more that she thought about it, the more she liked it. "Bob, why don't we go for a little walk?"

"Through the park? At this time?" Not that he minded, you understand. One nano more at her side was very welcome.

"Why not?"

Why not indeed?

Bob stopped the car and gallantly opened the door for Dot. She blushed a little; she hadn't expected that gesture. She managed to smile and accepted the hand that he offered her. 

Both walked through the empty park, with their coats tightly wrapped around them due to the cold. She looked up at the dark interface of the system with a thoughtful expression, staring at the brilliant points of light.

"Thinking of anything special?" Bob asked Dot. She shivered in delight as she felt his warm breath tickle her ear.

"No, Bob. I was just remembering something that my father had told me once." She looked up. "That there were never two identical interfaces: the interface of each system of the Net, with its distribution of brilliant pixels, was unique." She smiled with the memories. "When I was child, I liked to be looking the stars and tying them, as in that game of 'join the dots'."

"Actually, you can find any pattern in the distribution of pixels." Bob commented.

"Huh?"

"Do you want me to prove it? Then, please Miss Matrix, name any object."

"All right: Net Sailing Ship." There was a tone of friendly challenge and of curiosity in her voice.

Bob looked up at the interface for an instant, before speaking. "Could you stretch out your arm?" 

She did as he asked. Bob was behind her and hugged her waist with one arm, while he held her arm with his other. "Just look up and follow where I point," he said. He guided her hand, and the drawing of a ship appeared in the interface.

"Did you like it?" he asked.

"A butterfly," she challenged again. Her hand made the drawing of a butterfly. "How do you did that?"

"It's a small trick that my father taught me."

"Your father?" She was surprised. Bob always spoke very little of his father. And when he spoke, there was always a point of sadness.

"You're surprised to hear that my father and I played together?" Bob asked with a rueful smile.

"No! Of course not... It's just that you don't talk about him a lot."

"I don't talk much about family, do I?" Bob asked rhetorically, a lot of self-loathing in his tone.

Bob went quiet for a while. Dot looked at him in worry before reaching out with her gloved hand to stroke his face. 'I think is about time,' he told himself and turned to Dot.

"Dot, if there was a hundred sprites in a room and someone asked you to point out the one who seemed strange, would you point to my father? Please tell me the truth."

Dot bit her lower lip. She remembered when Bob had introduced her to his father, David Challenger, a little before the defeat of Daemon, when they managed to free the ASDI System from Daemon's control. Bob had told her that his father had been a top-level Guardian before being transferred to the Simulation Control. He was also an amateur mathematician and had published some works in that area. He was a tall silver-skinned and black-haired sprite, and his brown eyes had a penetrating shine that really disturbed her. It seemed that he was reading your thoughts. He was a friendly sprite, although his face was always serious and neutral.

"I will take your silence as a yes." Bob replied.

"Sorry, Bob. But what has this to do with..."

"I'll explain. Although he is recognised as an excellent Guardian and mathematician, my father has been a diagnosed schizophrenic for ten hours now."

Her face must have revealed her surprise, because Bob nodded his head.

"Yes, schizophrenic." He sighed. "My father always had been someone who worried too much, that felt too responsible for what happened to our home system a long time ago. One cycle what the people of the Bletchley system call the "Nightmare of the Control of Simulations"... The User had loaded two simulations into the system at the same time. One landed over the system's energy core. The other one was over its' most populous sector. There was not enough energy for both cubes. If both simulations proceeded, the entire system would have crashed. My father was forced to choose which of them should proceed. Naturally, he chose the simulation over the energy core, because if he didn't, the whole system would have been destroyed just as certainly. Of course that meant that he had to leave the other simulation... to crash."

Dot swallowed dryly. She had already been forced to take decisions that she wished that she didn't have to take. She could well imagine the torment that Mr. Challenger had felt having to make that choice. Bob continued the story.

"One week later, my mother came to inform Vectra and me that our father had been hospitalised. He had been found in his office, cowering against a wall, murmuring unintelligible things for himself."

"Bob... I'm so sorry."

"Me too, Dot. The worst part of it was that none of us could do anything to help him. He always went out of his way to help others but now we couldn't get to help him. The disease created a defragged barrier between us!" He looked at the side. "He was interned for five hours, when we decided that that was not helping him and my mother decided to take care of him herself. Turbo agreed to accept my father into the academy as a consultant. When he had a good cycle, you noticed that he was still there, under that disease... Unfortunately, the good cycles were rare. I once found him beating his head in the wall of the refectory, with a expression of despair on his face that could crash any core.sys." Bob lowered his head. "And I could not do anything to help him." He murmured to himself, with a tear insisting in going down.

Dot hugged him gently for some nanos, waiting for him to recompose himself. No one would find it easy to make an admission like that. It must have been especially difficult for someone as strong and self-reliant as Bob. "But recovered, didn't he?"

"Yes, it's true. In the end, he recovered." Suddenly, Bob seemed to notice where he was. "Sorry, Dot. I don't think that was a subject adapted for a date, was it?"

She looked in his eyes, seriously. "Perhaps. But I'm glad that you trust me enough to tell me that." Dot was silent for a moment before she seemed to come to a decision. "I think should return that trust." Bob seemed confused. "Bob, I think since you came back from the Web, you never saw me without this glove." She explained, lifting her left hand.

"I thought was just fashion," Bob said.

Dot smiled kindly. "To be honest, no," Dot replied. She pulled off the glove and revealed the silvery metal of a replacement hand. It was attached to her wrist just at the level of the pulse point. "When Megabyte took the Baudway Sector, we tried to free it. Unhappily, our plan didn't work." Dot narrowed her eyes with rage. "Megabyte's spies discovered our plans and Megabyte himself, with his army, came to attack us. To cut a long history, he got me to corner and attacked me with his extendable claws. He tried to infect me." She trembled. It was impossible for any healthy sprite not to be horrified with that. "In the last nano, Mouse appeared and cut off his claw. We escaped from him, but the infection continued to spread though my hand. I have to admit that he was smart. The infection was slow, but irreversible." Bob had already heard about that kind of infection: it literally transformed the sprite into a virus. "Being the Command.Com, if he infected me, he would win the war. Then, Mouse and I agreed that we would have to take... drastic measures." She didn't complete the story. She didn't need to.

"I... understand." he murmured, unable to think of anything else to say.

"I still have nightmares about that cycle." She admitted. "The simple idea that Megabyte could infect me... control me..." Dot shook her head. "Beside Mouse and the doctor that installed the prosthesis, you are the only one to know about it. I didn't have the courage to tell the rest of them about this."

"Thank you for trusting me," Bob said seriously.

"Thank you, Bob, for hearing me out."

The two of them were silent for a few nanos. They noticed that their relationship had reached another level. Their emotional connection already existed and they recognised that. The connection of trust had been intensified and consolidated: they had admitted their weaknesses to each other.

The two sprites went back to the car, hand-in-hand.

== ==

Bob was driving Dot back to her apartment. On a whim, she opened a vidwindow and contacted the guard of her building. "Mr. Symant, did anybody come to see me while I was out?"

"Well, Miss Matrix, your brothers have been here, and soon afterwards Ms. AndrAIa and Ms. Mouse too." The guard told.

"Thank you." She turned off the vidwindow. "As I thought: They are waiting for us." Bob sighed. After a moment of silence, Dot surprised him with a suggestion. "What if we went to your apartment?"

"My apartment?" Bob asked. Did he actually hear her say that?

"Yes. We will make sure that they will be walking around with a flea behind the ear for a little while longer." Dot's expression was playful. "But don't think that we will do anything else but that tonight. Do you understand?"

He blushed with the emphasis that she placed on that last sentence.

"I wasn't thinking of anything!" He affirmed, completely embarrassed.

"Fortunately." She calmly said, looking through the windscreen. After a moment, she continued. "This way I won't have to test the tips that Mouse has given me."

Bob nearly crashed the car. "Tips about what?" he squeaked.

Dot didn't say. When he understood, Bob blushed and just did a U-turn, heading towards Kits Sector. Dot just looked off to one side and she laughed.

== ==

A while later, Bob turned on the lights in his apartment.

"Welcome to my humble home," He said with a smile.

"Thank you."

"I will make some java for us," Bob continued. He felt very nervous right now.

"All right."

While Bob was in the kitchen, Dot looked at for the room. An electric guitar was hung on the wall, over the sofa. On a small shelf, there were some books. Curious, she read the titles. 'The Heisenberg Report', 'All the Troubles of the Net', 'The Case of the Missing File', 'The Quantum Zone', 'The Sprite who saw Tomorrow'... Sci-fi and mystery books. Yeah, it matched the owner. The other ones surprised her: 'History of the Enigma System', 'Cryptoanalysis in Net War Two', 'The Battle of the Lovelace system'.

"History books about the Second Net War?" she asked.

Bob blushed, and gave a cup of java to Dot. "I guess... that runs in the family."

"Who would think of it? Bob, a historian!" Dot laughed at the idea as she sat down in the sofa.

Bothered by Dot's clear amazement, Bob replied a little defensively. "I am just interested in the subject. After all, everybody is entitled to a small idiosyncrasy."

"Of course." She conceded.

"After all, you, Miss Organisation, had your cycles of rebelliousness."

"Huh?"

"Dot, I know that when you were a teenager, you dressed head to toe in a black biker suit all the time and you dyed the fringe of your hair with the all colours of the rainbow!"

"How do you know about that?"

"Dot, your brother me showed a photo of you of that time!"

Dot shrank back and covered her face in mortified embarrassment. "Oh no!" she murmured. Bob laughed, and mussed her hair a little.

They talked a little more. After a little while, the subject had had taken a detour (much to Dot's relief) to their respective musical tastes. When Dot commented that Bob was a little out of tune, he challenged her to sing (actually, it was just an excuse to hear her). Her reaction was to rise from the sofa and turn on Bob's media player. Holding a pen as if it was a microphone, she began to sing.

We're coming to the edge,   
running on the datastream,   
coming through the firewall,   
your sons and daughters.   
  
Let the energy run,   
let all the dreamers   
wake the system.   
Come, the New Mainframe.   
  
Golden sectors rise,   
the uptime lights   
the tracks that meet them,   
and sirens call them on   
with a song.   
  
It's asking for the taking.   
Trembling, shaking.   
Oh, my core.sys is aching.   
  
We're coming to the edge,   
running on the datastream,   
coming through the firewall,   
your sons and daughters.   
  
We the great and small   
stand on a star   
and code a registry of desire   
through the dark'ning dawn.   
  
It's asking for the taking.   
Come run with me now,   
the interface is the colour of brown   
you've never even seen   
in the eyes of your lover.   
  
Oh, my core.sys is aching.   
We're coming to the edge,   
running on the datastream,   
coming through the firewall,   
your sons and daughters.   
  
It's asking for the taking.   
Trembling, shaking.   
Oh, my core.sys is aching.   
  
We're coming to the edge,   
running on the datastream,   
coming through the firewall,   
your sons and daughters.   
  
Let the energy run,   
let all the dreamers   
wake the system.   
Come, the New Mainframe.

"Did you like it?" she asked with a impish smile in her face. Bob nodded in agreement.

As Dot walked back to the sofa, she tripped and fell onto him. Their lips connected.

After the surprise of the first moment, the only thought in the lovers' minds: "Access approved!"

The Core of Mainframe is considered the largest source of heat of the system. Compared with their kiss, it would seem like the heat of a match in comparison to that of the Sun.

== ==

Dot and Bob opened their eyes. They were still in the sofa, hugging each other. Their hair was completely dishevelled. Reacting to the surprise of the moment, they both fell off the couch. "My User..." Dot gasped.

"If they just think that we..."

"Yes Bob, I know." 

After a moment of silence, he said, indicating the bathroom. "You can go first, I'll wait."

"Okay. And don't peek, did you understand?"

"Kill-joy!" He called to her as she walked off. She just smiled.

== ==

Matrix walked to and fro in the front of Principal Office. AndrAIa, Mouse and Ray weren't much calmer.

"Where are they?" Matrix demanded of no one in particular. Mr. Symant, the guard of Dot's building, said that Bob and Dot had not returned to her apartment.

"Sparky..." AndrAIa said. "I think that you will find out soon enough."

Bob and Dot walked up to the Principal Office, their arms around the other's waist. It was clear what had happened. Their friends' expressions were ones of absolute surprise.

"Hey, how are you guys?" Dot asked, her face totally innocent.

Mouse was the first to recover. She seemed had lost her smart-aleck attitude for a moment. "Er... have you two er...?"

The couple didn't answer. Dot just kissed Bob. "I'll see you later, Bob," she said.

"I'll see you later, Dot."

Then they had both gone in separate directions, Dot to her office and Bob to watch over the system.

When Mouse realised that neither of them was going to answer her question, she folded her arms and began to sulk. "It is not fair!" she exclaimed.

Matrix was so frozen by surprise that he seemed to have been struck by lightning. Ray just shook his head. AndrAIa just giggled.

== ==

Later that cycle, Bob contacted Dot through a vidwindow. "Yes, Bob?"

"So, did you liked our date?" Bob asked. "I know that it could had been better, but..."

Dot interrupted him. "Well, I not specialist on the subject, but I think that we did very well this time." She paused for thought before continuing. "But next time I plan it, okay?"

He laughed. "Okay." A mischievous light appears in his eyes. "Any plans right now?"

She smiled. "No but maybe in the third cycle," Dot winked.

They closed the vidwindow. And they both began to wait anxiously for the third cycle.

The end (?) ^_~

Author's explanation: This fic is the result of a bet: An fellow fanficition.net writer, BenRG, and I, had made the fellowing bet: if one of us release first a chapter of any fic that we are writing. He winned and asked me about a fic concering Bob and Dot's first date. And the result was "Access Denied - A ReBoot Romance". I hope that you enjoyed this fic in the same way that I enjoyed write it (this is the first time that I don't mind in lose a bet... ^_^) And yes, I aware of the connections with the movie "A Beautiful Mind" :-)

Disclaimer: ReBoot and its characters are property of Mainframe Entertainment. The songs that Dot sings in the fic are a filk of "Rescue Me" and "Let the River Run", whose originals are owner by their respective composers. No copyright infligement is intended. This is a fanfiction work, created for fun.


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